Can We Talk About This? --> "Greensumption"

Watch this video called "Greensumption". This is something that needs to be discussed. We think we have it all figured out, don't we???

The Future of Electricity: The "Smart Grid"

Imagine a utility grid that is smart, distributed and more localized. What does that mean? Well, think electricity combined with the technology and structure of the Internet.

In our current electricity grid, the electrons flow from huge, centralized power plants, sometimes quite a distance from the end user, and simply go one way; picture thousands of one-way streets that branch off of a freeway. It hasn’t changed fundamentally for more than a hundred years, except for the capacity of the grid, that is, an increase in the number of power plants. But, the grid is outdated and in need of an update.

There are fundamentally two major problems with the existing grid:

1. Current transmission lines are incapable of transmitting electrons very long distances. For example, we cannot get our electricity in California from a wind farm in Texas.

2. Inaccuracy of the real-time usage data which makes it hard to predict patterns and troubleshoot.

The loss of electrons in transmission is something that only a technological breakthrough will be able to fix. We will have to wait and see on this one. But this is a long way off considering that the transmission lines will have to be replaced.

Now, what if the intelligence and structure of the Internet was a model for our electricity grid? Well, suddenly power companies would be able to track with accuracy, how much power was being used and where. Currently, much of this data is vague and inaccurate. For example, when there is a downed power line, the utility must wait for a blackout or for someone to call it in to diagnose the problem. What’s more, thousands of homes can go out when there is just one problem on the line. In the new grid, troubleshooting would not be a problem.

This new “smart-grid” would be controlled by thousands of wireless transmitters that could “talk” to each other and give the utility accurate data on real-time energy usage. This has many added benefits including:

• Empowering the customers and utility with real-time data.
• Better troubleshooting.
• More efficient use of the power load.
• Less prone to storms and terrorist attacks.

With this accurate information, the utility could begin to more efficiently handle the power loads during peak times. For example, the new smart-grid would be able to turn up the thermostats in thousands of homes by one degree in the middle of summer. Collectively this would make a huge difference in power needs, but on a user-level this would hardly be noticeable. One of the more interesting areas is the “smart appliances” that would be able to power on and off according to the power needs of the grid. Think of a washing machine that turned off on-demand by the power companies if you weren’t using it.

It is amazing that the grid has not changed much since the times of Thomas Edison. This is a huge growth area and very exciting when you consider that much of this will be powered by renewable energy and distributed. Traditionally, the electricity industry is very slow to change, considering the infrastructure changes that are required. However, the “smart grid” will soon be a common household phrase.

Green is now a factor in pricing real estate: LEED

Green is now a factor in pricing real estate. It would be great if Solar companies could bundle energy efficiency into their mix somehow though. Is this already happening? I am not sure.

Solar companies are so hyped up on the sexiness of nanotechnology, that they are not taking a leadership role in promoting efficiency and positioning themselves as leaders in these two related and equally important fields. Efficiency and conservation first, BEFORE high-tech add-ons, I say.

I think that LEED certification will become the standard in real estate pricing. Like the ENERGY STAR seal on an appliance, or the MPG rating on a new car, I see the LEED rating factored into building purchases that will directly affect pricing. This means that investing in a sustainable home that is LEED certified, has financial benefits, like high resale values and savings on energy and water.

Check out Arno Harris's - CEO of Solar Company Recurrent Energy - blog on this topic: http://arnoharris.typepad.com/cleanenergyfuture/2008/06/class-a--its-got-to-be-green.html

Letter to the Editor: Wake Up America, Water and Oil is Underpriced!

I wrote this short note to the editors of about ten major newspapers across the country:

It is amazing how spoiled Americans have become. We pay five dollars for a gallon of gas and everyone freaks out. Europeans have been paying three to four times that much for years, which has encouraged more fuel efficient vehicles, and also smaller vehicles.

Market forces are at work here, people. Tapping into fuel reserves, off-shore drilling, these short-term fixes miss the point. Oil is a scarce resource and any scarce resource that is in huge demand, will constantly go up in price. Americans have been spoiled and treat these precious resources as God-given rights. It is about time that we pay more realistic market prices for our two most important resources - energy and water.

Water is the next oil. We will see price increases in the future as the cost of providing ready, clean supplies of water goes up. Currently, water is cheaper in the desert of Las Vegas than in snowy Boston; isn't something clearly wrong with this picture?

You can - and should - write a short note to the editor's of newspapers about how you feel about environmental issues. Visit Al Gore's non-profit initiative - wecansolveit.org - for a great resource for the concerned individual. There are many ways you can get involved, under the "Take Action" section of the website. Here is a link to help you write a short note to some editor's right away: http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/speakout/augustchallenge.

10 Greatest Challenges Facing Humanity

The late Richard E. Smalley, considered one of the early fathers of nanotechnology, founded the appropriately-named Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology in the heart of Houston at acclaimed Rice University, which is now a global leader in advanced energy and nanotech research.

Before his death in 2005 at age 62, Smalley and his team came up with a list of the 10 greatest challenges facing humanity:

1. Water
2. Energy
   
3. Food
4. Environment
5. Poverty
6. Terrorism and War
7. Disease
8. Education
9. Democracy
10. Population Growth

From The Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder.

Conservation and Efficiency: Two Often Overlooked Areas

Most people trying to save the planet think that the best thing that they can do is to buy a hybrid vehicle like a Toyota Prius or put solar panels on their home. However, two of the most important areas in environmental change are being overlooked: conservation and efficiency.

The two most important resource-savings take place in energy and water usage. Although this is much less sexy than getting some semiconductors installed on your rooftop, efficiency and conservation are the easiest areas to make a difference right now, and should be regarded as the most important first step for any concerned citizen. I am amazed by how many people make the big jump towards other more technology-heavy measures, before they consider the changes that are less interesting on the surface, but if everyone did them, could literally change the world.

Often referred to as the cleanest power source of all, efficiency is the most effective way to save resources. Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, is one of the world’s most respected efficiency technology gurus. He first coined the term negawatt in 1989 as a unit of conserved electricity, or a megawatt of power that the power plant never has to generate because of efficiency.

Both in the water and electrical industry, the incentives have to be changed for efficiency and conservation to flourish. In the past, water and energy companies have been rewarded by how much water or energy they sell, without any incentives to sell less or encourage efficiency and conservation.

Nowadays, utilities are changing that model and reforming the system to create financial incentives for utilities to promote efficiency. For example, the Northwest Power Act of 1980 allowed power generators to share a portion of their customers’ savings from using less electricity, giving them a financial stake in the efficiency game. Among utilities’ large-scale efforts in efficiency is market transformation, a program in which utilities and regulators promote the manufacture and purchase of energy-saving products (appliances, building materials, etc.) with rebates, industrial training, consumer education, and marketing assistance.

But in most areas in the United States, except for the Northwest, California, New York, and a few others, regulatory efforts to drive efficiency measures have a long way to go. The decoupling of utility sales and profits has not happened yet in most areas, which gives utilities the wrong incentives to encourage efficiency and conservation.

We must spread the word about this important and often overlooked agent of change. Visit the website Flex Your Power [www.flexyourpower.org] for more information about conservation and efficiency. Also visit H20 Conserve [www.h2oconserve.org] for water efficiency tips and advice.

Seeking experts to contribute to our blog.

We are looking for experts in different fields to post to our blog. If you think that you have any ideas on how to build local communities, please contact us.

Our Manifesto:
Ideas to build strong local communities. We believe that the internet should be harnessed to bring people back together, face-to-face. We would like to empower everyday people to make a difference, locally.

Here are some keywords to give you an idea on what we are looking for:

• social networking
• community building
  
• grassroots movements
  
• environmental experts
• clean-tech
• education
• healthcare
• renewable energy
• water
  
• biofuels
• green building
• technology

Power America with Cheap, Clean Energy in 10 Years? Yes We Can!

Marin Clean Energy (MCE) and other Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) schemes have huge potential for reducing our carbon footprint, affordably...

So you may be wondering: what can I do to make a difference to the planet? (See below for the 5 THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO).

Well, besides changing your lightbulbs, consciously using less water and energy, buying a hybrid or installing solar power on your roof, there is something called Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) that could prove to be very promising for some areas. The problem is, not many people know about it. The two major sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are from cars and buildings. Community Choice would focus on the buildings part.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is a system that was made into law in the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California (AB 117) which allows cities and counties to aggregate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts.

Essentially, cities get together and form what’s known as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to buy renewable energy mostly from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass and your local utility would still transmit the power and maintain the lines. The best of both worlds, right? Therefore, you would still get your same utility bill, although the power would come from renewable energy instead of coal, natural gas and other non-renewable sources.



Marin County, CA – one of the most liberal and wealthiest counties in the nation - is looking at CCA in depth, calling it Marin Clean Energy (MCE) [www.marincleanenergy.info]. This could be a perfect test bed for CCA and serve as a successful example for other counties and cities in the five eligible states. There are successful models of CCA already in place in various counties and cities across the nation, with about 1 million people receiving their power this way already.

That’s not to say that only the wealthy could afford CCA. The prices for CCA would be comparable to the prices we pay currently, maybe slightly higher at first, but as the cost of natural gas and other non-renewable sources goes up, the fixed price of fuel that renewable energy affords will be stable and much cheaper than most alternatives in the long run. What's more, it would encourage money to stay more in the local economies and would promote renewable-based businesses.

Marketing gurus know that the “It’s good for planet” ticket only gets you so far. Actually, money is the bottom line for mass adoption of almost any new product, service or structural change. It has to be as good or better than the current option. Luckily, CCA achieves both affordability and eco-friendliness.

The MCE plan could reduce CO2 emissions by 70,000 tons per year by 2010 and 350,000 tons by 2019! Compared to other reduction efforts like encouraging community car-sharing and improvements to public transportation, this would be THE single most important effort for a rapid reduction of GHG emissions in our local communties.

Time is of the essence. Most of our local energy utilities simply cannot meet their renewable energy goals or Renewable Production Standards (RPS) as quickly as we could under CCA. It is up to us to tell everyone we know. We must act now!


5 THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO:

1. GET INFORMED. If you live in Marin or in any of the other proposed CCA areas, find out when there is a presentation in your town or city. Sign up for the mailing list. If there is not an upcoming event, start one!

2. SPREAD THE WORD. Tell everyone that you know about CCA. Get excited and spread the enthusiasm to others!

3. GET INVOLVED. The most important step of all. Write or call your city council members or county supervisor to tell them that you support this initiative. This is the single most important thing you can do because they will vote on your behalf.

4. START ONE. If there is no CCA planned for your community and you are located within one of the five eligible states (Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California), call your city council or mayor and get as many people as you know to do the same to show interest for Community Choice Aggregation.

5. FORM A COMMUNITY ACTION GROUP. Use meetup.com to meet people in your local area with common interests. The keys to forming a group are consistency and small group size. Download our action pack from cleanroots.com for help starting a group and for other ideas to work on in your local community.

California Communities currently considering CCA:

• Marin County, Marin Clean Energy (MCE)
• San Joaquin Valley CCA formed; Contract finalized
• San Francisco CCA business plan complete
• Oakland
• Berkeley
• Emeryville
• Chula Vista drafting CCA business plan
• West Hollywood
• Beverly Hills
• Pleasanton
• San Luis Obispo
• Davis actively considering CCA

More detailed feasibility studies can be found on the Local Government Commission website [http://www.lgc.org/cca/].